The popular craft of rugmaking has been practiced by many people for a number of years. It provides an enjoyable pastime and creative outlet while producing useful and aesthetically appealing rugs having an infinite variety of designs and textures which cannot be duplicated by commercial machine-produced rugs. Handcrafted rugs are used on the floor in place of conventional floor coverings, and are often displayed as a wall hanging.
There are a variety of techniques or methods for producing handcrafted rugs. For example, one popular style of handcrafted rug is the hooked rug which is produced by passing a hook successively through a backing fabric to arrange a continuous pile yarn into loops projecting from the face of the backing fabric. A variation on the hooked rug is the latch hook rug which uses precut lengths of yarn instead of a continuous yarn. The precut lengths of yarn are attached to a heavy canvas mesh backing using a latch hook.
Most rugmaking techniques of which applicant is aware, including those described above, require a certain aptitude and many people find the techniques difficult to master. The usual methods of producing a hooked rug, for example, require some degree of skill and dexterity in order to achieve uniform spacing and density of the pile and to form the pile of a uniform height. Also, many people find the pushing or pulling of the hook through the backing fabric to be tiresome.
In certain popular styles of hooked rug the pile yarns are merely pushed through the backing fabric and held in place solely by friction. In the event that the pile is accidentally snagged, the pile yarn can be readily pulled from the backing fabric leaving an area of exposed backing fabric. In the latch hook type rug, the pile yarns are secured to the backing fabric by a knot, and are thus not as susceptible to being pulled out. However, the necessity of using precut pile yarns makes this type of rug relatively expensive. Additionally, unless particular care is exercised in inserting and securing the lengths of pile yarn, uneven pile tufts may be produced, presenting an undesirable surface appearance to the rug. Also, many people find it difficult to handle the short pieces of yarn and continued work with the short pieces causes discomfort in the user's hands.